32 
familiar enough to most collectors, and is a native of both 
counties. The nightjar is, perhaps, oftener recognised in its 
moorland quarters, from which it descends at the gloaming to the 
lower grounds in quest of moths and beetles, which we have seen 
it dexterously snapping from the surface of a grass field. 
BA SO EES. COLTJMBIDsE. 
The King Dove, or Wood Pigeon ( Columba palumbus). 
Of late years this bird has become very numerous, and is now 
looked upon as a feathered nuisance throughout the agricultural 
counties of Scotland. In Ayrshire it has been for some years 
past a destructive farm pest, devouring the ripening wheat and 
other cereals in great quantities. In Wigtownshire, where turnips 
are cultivated to a large extent, it is equally mischievous, by 
eating up the tender blades, and destroying the growth of the 
bulb. It even picks up the sprouting seed of the turnip shortly 
after it has been sown; and as it feeds voraciously from early 
dawn to sunset, its depredations are not easily checked. Some 
years ago Mr Anderson found it a good plan to visit the turnip 
drills about sunrise, when the pigeons were found even at that 
hour dozing half-asleep, after an early breakfast, and, by taking 
them in a line, give them a good charge of No. 6 at fifteen yards. 
The ravages committed by wood pigeons in East Lothian have 
been met by a most extraordinary but unavailing slaughter of the 
birds on the part of the farmers of that district. This district is 
fully considered in the “Birds of the West of Scotland.” 
The Kock Dove ( Columba livia). 
Plentiful along the coast between Ballantrae and the entrance 
to Loch Byan, and also along the range of cliffs forming the Mull 
of Galloway. In these localities there is the usual admixture of 
the domestic breed, judging from the number of parti-coloured 
specimens noticeable in the flocks frequenting the line of caves 
on both Ayrshire and Galloway coasts. Last year we found a 
single pair breeding in the roof of a cave under the ruins of 
Turnberry Castle. A number of pairs frequent the caverns of 
Ailsa Craig. 
Like the wood pigeon, this bird is occasionally destructive on 
farms in the vicinity of its haunts. 
